Blair's plan for free one-to-one lessons

State school pupils are to be given the chance of one-to-one teaching under plans being unveiled by Tony Blair today.

The offer of tutorials - for both bright children and strugglers - will be a centrepiece of Labour's pitch to parents ahead of the general election.

Mr Blair and Education Secretary Ruth Kelly were set to announce the new policy when they published their party's "mini-manifesto" for schools on a campaign visit in south London.

Under the plans, classes of 30 will be split up into small groups of up to five pupils in a bid to tailor teaching to different levels of ability.

After-school tutorials will also allow individual sessions with children on certain subjects, a practice currently restricted to pupils who pay for a private tutor.

Mr Blair was set to say the proposals are a clear example of Labour putting "parent power" at the heart of a modern state education system. But the plans could

prove controversial with teaching unions.

The Government claims that 28,000 new teachers and 105,000 new teaching assistants will provide the manpower for the plans.

Parents will be invited into schools to agree with teachers how to tailor tuition to their child's needs - to tackle weaknesses or to stretch the most able.

In a preface to the mini-manifesto, Mr Blair says: "If re-elected for a third term, we will carry through a fundamental system-wide change: to put 'parent power' at the heart of the education system, giving all parents - not just a minority as in the past - the choices and opportunities needed for their children to succeed and stay on beyond the age of 16 in sixth form, apprenticeship or training.

"My ambition is for people to say, 'I wish I was at school now'. New facilities, high quality teaching, modern curriculum, strong ethos, an abolition of the drop-out culture - these are the things that should distinguish every school and the experience of every pupil. It is possible to achieve them, but only with a third term of Labour investment and reform."

The new policy will take the practice of "setting" much further than occurs in the state sector at present. Streaming or "setting" currently only sorts pupils into different 30-strong classes according to ability.

But in London, many parents also pay private tutors to improve their child's exam results or to get them into a selective school.

The idea also fits with Labour's plans to offer 8am-6pm childcare in schools, with many more afterschool activities.

A Labour source said that the whole ethos of the new policy was to build on the extra funding that had been pumped into education since 1997.

Mr Blair and Ms Kelly will contrast their plans with Conservative policy, claiming the Tories would cut ?1billion from LEA budgets and introduce a pupils' passport system taking a further ?1billion out of the budget for schools.